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Saturday, March 21, 2015

So last weekend was Super Pi (3.1415blahblah) day, did you make a pie? I always mean to but forget every year. (Well, okay, I really just don’t want to mess with pie crust but…..) This year the kids asked me a week or so before if I would make a pie on Pi day. Instead of cringing like usual, I said yes with a big cheery smile. Why?

Because I have the DoughEZ!! So why not make a pie and keep my counter tops clean too?! So I did. You would have thought my family has never had sweets before as that pie was gone the next day!

So here I go. Pie dough on the DoughEZ all ready for rolling out.

Roll out the pie dough to match one of the circles the best you can that fits your pie pan with some room to spare.

Look at that!! I almost got a perfect circle!! woo hoo

I laid the pie pan on top of the dough, closed up the DoughEZ and flipped it over so the pie dough would fall right into the pie pan.

Look how the DoughEZ just peels right off the pie crust dough! No mess at all!

Flute the edges of the pie crust and then baked it before filling it.

Before baking it. I wasn’t fast enough to get a picture after it was baked and topped with Whipped Cream.

So are you wanting your own DoughEZ now? Well I have a Promo code (good for only the month of March) for you to get $10.00 off your order. Promo code has been extended till after Mother’s Day, 5/11/15!!

Just enter "ambersantics" all lower case for $10.00 off your order. And to help you even more, I have placed a button (Precision Dough Rolling System) that will take you straight to their order page on the side of my blog.

And now for the recipes that had my family asking me to make another Strawberry Pie soon (like the next day!)

Line bottom with the sliced strawberries Combine cornstarch, sugar and water in small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add the Jell-O and stir until dissolved. Pour over the strawberries and refrigerate until set. Serve with whipped cream

In a large mixing bowl, cut shortening and flour together. A pastry blender is preferred but a fork works with success too.

Then add water and stir with a fork until it forms a ball. If there’s still flour at the end, add water, a teaspoon at a time. You want the dough to be stiff, not sticky, so be careful not to add too much water.

Divide in half. If you’re only using half, you can freeze the other half now. Let the dough chill* in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before rolling out.

Poke dough with fork to prevent air pockets and bake for 10 mins at 350* or until the crust is golden.

*Oops! I just realized I never let my dough chill but it still rolled out great and tasted awesome!

Monday, March 2, 2015

Ever want to make cutout cookies but drag your feet because you know there will be a big mess to clean up afterwards? I’m that way at Christmas time but with orders, I’ll make them but still go ugh, what a mess to clean up.

Well enter Facebook and a post from one of my friends talking about this product she had just bought for making her cookies. To say I was intrigued was an understatement. So off to the site I went and 20 minutes later I had ordered the DoughEZ!

It came just in time for an order I had so I took step by step pictures to share with you after I had cut out a few batches as the DoughEz is just too much fun and I was impressed beyond impressed. (keep reading as Promo code is at the end of post)

The DoughEZ pastry mat is made of a silicone fiber mesh and the guide sticks are made of food safe ABS plastic. The six guide sticks come in two different depths of 1/8” (2 sticks) and 1/4” (4 sticks) in thickness. They can be stacked for various thickness and the 4 – 1/4” sticks with notches, snap together to create a 9”x13”x1” pastry frame.I wanted my cookies to be 1/4” thick so I used the 1/4” sticks. Slide them under the mat and place the dough on the mat in between the guide sticks.

Now bring the other side over and on top of the dough and get ready for some fun.

Using your rolling pin, start rolling your dough. What??!! No sticky dough on the rolling pin?!! Amazing!! Roll dough till it is to thickness of the sticks you are using. (your rolling pin stays right on top of the sticks when rolling and the mat never moved. Loved that!)

Once dough is to thickness, open the DoughEZ and place parchment paper or in my case, wax paper, on to the dough.

Now close the DoughEZ and flip it over so the wax paper and dough end up on the other side.Start cutting out the cookie shapes!

All the cookies I cut out were all the same thickness!! Finally I can get them the same without eyeballing it or ending up with different thicknesses!

And here are the cookies all decorated and all same thickness! woo-hoo!!

Wait! What about clean up? It is so simple now. For one your counters are still clean and so is your rolling pin! All you have to do is wipe down the DoughEZ mat with a wet washcloth and a little bit of soap, dry it off with a towel and roll it up. So simple!

All components of the DoughEZ are FDA approved food safe materials. Perfect for making biscuits, donuts, or non baked confections like rice krispy treats or molding cake pop dough and so much more. Did you see the rings on the one side? Perfect for shaping your pie crusts and pizzas! I just got a new bread machine that makes pasta dough, can’t wait to cut those out on this!

So I was so excited on how well this worked that I gushed on DoughEZ’s Facebook page and they gave me a PROMO code to share with my readers! Just enter "ambersantics" all lower case for $10.00 off your order. Promo code is good for the month of March only. Promo code has been extended till after Mother’s Day, 5/11/15!! And to help you even more, I have placed a button (Precision Dough Rolling System) that will take you straight to their order page on the side of my blog.

You will not be disappointed, believe me. I am so excited to make cutout cookies now and fondant for my cakes! I even have everything but marshmallows to make rice krispie treats for my kids. Which when I do, I will share how that works with you.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Time for another challenge over at CCEE! Sabrina tells us that It wouldn’t be a month of challenges from her without a technique challenge, so here’s a technique challenge pure and simple...or not so simple; it’s up to you.

Inlaid die-cuts

Here are a few links which might help you create something using this technique.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Challenge time over at Cornish Heritage Farms! This time around I am the hostess! My challenge to you is to make a snowy card. I love my snow and all too soon it will be over for another year (yes, I know, most are waiting for that day when the snow is gone.). So create a card using a snowman or a snowy scene.

I used Snow Dog digi stamp for my card. Colored him with prismacolor pencils and blended them with odorless mineral spirits. Used some White Flower Soft for the snow and added some bling in behind the image layer. The sentiment is from one of the new sets released at CHF called Friend Expressions.

If you would like to play along with us of course we would love to have you!

To play create a card using CHF images. You can use either CHF digi or rubber stamps to create a card or project ... anything you like as long as the stamps are Cornish Heritage Farms. (Yes, they can be older stamps.)

Once you have created your card/project come back here and place a comment with a link to your card/project to the CHF blog post so that we can see what you created. If you upload your card/project to SCS don't forget to included the keyword CHF73. We can't wait to see what you create!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Design Teams blogs today to see what they created for this challenge.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Yes, I am still alive even though my blog would say otherwise. Sorry I have not been posting much, have lost my mojo and am slowly finding it again. I am also down a team and another team is taking a break so I don’t have as many weekly postings as I use to have. But enough about me…..

Time for another CCEE challenge! New month means a new challenge hostess, Sabrina! February 6th 1952 was the day Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne. So for our challenge this week Sabrina has challenged us to Make a card featuring crowns or "royal" images. Remember that playing cards could work for this too!

I decided to go a complete different route in using a crown/royal image than the same old princess way. I used some fun design paper for my card. Made the hearts all sparkly by outlining and filling in with pink Stickles.

For the inside of the card I stamped the following sentiment from a retired set I have and colored the crown with copics.

Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs:

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

There is still time to do the CCEE challenge! This past week’s challenge was Stamp Etching. You can find a tutorial on how to use this technique over on Splitcoast Stampers.

For my card I used Love is in the Air from a company no longer in business, Our Craft Lounge. I did the stamping etching on the balloons, at first I wasn’t to happy about it but the more I looked at the card, the more I did like how it turned out! I positioned each block to make it seem as if the hot air balloon was raising up in the sky. Colored them with copics and did a little masking with for the cloud.

Don't forget to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see the rest of the creations the CCEE Stampers created this week. You can also see more details of their creations on their individual blogs: